Society

The Coen brothers have been at it again. Now it’s Dave Van Ronk that they are reviving, through the film Inside Llewyn Davis.

Last time, in 2000, it was the song Man of Constant Sorrow that many people became familiar with, as sung by the Soggy Bottom Boys in their film O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Nothing wrong with that.

The version I like best is the one sung by Bob Dylan on a television show in 1963. Many people know it from Martin Scorsese’s documentary film No Direction Home, on the DVD edition of which it is included among the extras.

Good for Julie Robinson, the prep school teacher who has said we shouldn't be afraid of being bored. As today's Telegraph editorial says, if children are allowed time for quiet reflection, away from the temptations of the screen, they will develop a taste for self-reliant activity. And how much more interesting, and interested, they will become.

But it's not just children. Most grown-ups suffer from the inability to be on their own for any period of time without the desire for stimulation – from other people, from screens, from drink. But it is the time spent… Read More

"I saw both the Nutcracker ballet (for the first time) and Midsummer Night's Dream over the weekend. I was completely overwhelmed. We must cling to these artistic experiences and treasure them because they truly replace religion in so many of our lives."
Thus spoke a dear friend of mine on the phone yesterday. It wasn't the moment to suggest the inadequacy of art alone as a moral compass for life (the fervent Schubertiades in the log fire twilights of Auschwitz always come to mind), but I did comment that both of those masterpieces involve the thrill of magic, the contrast between innocence and experience, the enchantment yet pain of lost childhood and… Read More

That may seem like a minor distinction but, in fact, it's an enormous and important one.

Cambridge undergraduates have been attacking the decision to let Prince William into the university to do a tailored agriculture course. And they're right – it is essentially unfair that, with his average A-Level results, he should just breeze in to one of the best universities in the world. He is hardly a brilliant student. I was once told by a friend who'd met him, 'In real life, he'd be hard-pressed to get a job at Foxtons.'

I've just returned home after six weeks on the road, and thus to six issues of the international Catholic weekly to which I subscribe, The Tablet. I don't agree with everything between its covers: so rich and diverse are its articles that it would be virtually impossible to do so, that is one of its strengths; but I invariably find something inspiring or informative in each issue, and one writer I always enjoy is Fr. Daniel O'Leary.
Fr. O'Leary recently wrote a beautiful, provocative, moving meditation on Alzheimer's disease called 'Silent grace of forgetting'. All of us face the possibility of dementia in varying degrees, either in our… Read More

Latest news from the Centre for Statements of the Bleeding Obvious: there's no such thing as being fat and healthy.

So says a new study from Dr Ravi Retnakaran, of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada. Fat people are 25 per cent more likely to die younger than thin people, even if they have no other health problems like high cholesterol or high blood pressure. The report's conclusion? GPs should always encourage patients to lose weight.

It seems extraordinary that such a patent truth has had to be researched. But, in fact, a dangerous myth has emerged that there's such a thing as healthy obesity, as long a… Read More

In terms of etiquette, coming out does not mean what it did at the start of the Queen’s reign. Back then, it meant girls being presented at court. Now, it means someone telling their world about their sexual identity. In an ideal world, it wouldn’t matter – we all know that. There should be no need for anyone to feel they have to alert their friends and family. Why should it be assumed we are all born "straight until I say otherwise"? But, as we are well aware, life is not ideal. We do sometimes have to alert people to our orientation, as Tom Daley’s commendable statement… Read More

UPDATE: The Huffington Post and other websites now claim that Elan has a history of hoaxes and that Diane probably didn't exist. He's sort of admitted it. Which makes him look… deeply weird and not much nicer than if the story was true.

Inadequate young men have a new hero and his name is Elan Gale. He's a TV producer. He has been regaling Twitter with the tale of his Great Victory over A Middle-Aged Woman, and a depressing number of his peers seem to be punching the air and making those "doof doof doof" noises you hear at wrestling matches. You can follow… Read More